Strauss ordinary - elegant antiquity

Ferns are one of the most ancient plant inhabitants of our planet. Their history counts many millions of years, they saw more dinosaurs. But even today, ferns do not lose their importance both for the Earth's ecosystem and for the economic activities of mankind. It is such an ancient and elegant plant is the common ostrich, which belongs to the perennial ferns of the family of onicleids.

This plant is found in great abundance in the European part of Russia, on the slopes of the Caucasian mountains, in Siberia, forests of the Far East and Transbaikalia. In the north, the border of the range of its distribution passes through 61 ° N ^lat . W. Of course, the common ostrich, which grows in such difficult climatic conditions, is distinguished by a high degree of frost resistance and unpretentiousness.

This fern, also called a black shed and an "ostrich feather", prefers to live in damp places in forests due to the shape of its leaves, often found along the shoreline of Siberian rivers and streams, in thickets of coastal shrubs, at the bottom of ravines, near swamps and swamps, On wet edges and stone placers. In Europe, the common ostrich can be found from the Scandinavian peninsula in the north to Croatia and the mountainous areas of the Apennines in the south. In the twentieth century it was discovered on the slopes of Etna - a majestic Sicilian volcano. Also, the common ostrich is widely distributed in Asia and the Americas.

The Japanese botanists Kato and Ivatsuki, who carefully studied the modern range of this fern growing and analyzed the morphological similarity of all its varieties, concluded that, probably, the homeland of the overseer is North America, where it originated from the most ancient ancestors, then settled throughout the North Hemisphere. Indirect confirmation of this is: the sporiferous way of its reproduction, the ability to adapt quickly to the harshest climatic conditions and unpretentiousness.

The ordinary grasshopper is a fern that has photosynthetic vegetative leaves of the dimorph type, up to one and a half meters in Europe and up to four in the Asian variety. This ancient plant multiplies both by spores and stolons. His disputes are of a fairly large size, with a high content of chloroplasts, which is why their light green color is determined. The Ostrich is practically not subject to illnesses. But sometimes there are parasitic marsupials of the genus tafrin, which cause the appearance of dark spots on the leaves.

Unfortunately, the chemical composition of this ancient inhabitant of the planet is, to date, too little studied. So far, no one in the world seriously took up this issue. It is known only about the content in its leaves of a certain amount of vitamin P, tannins (4.5%), coumarin derivatives (not more than 0.35%). Flavonoids, ascorbic acid and floroglucin derivatives were found in the rhizomes.

Ostraznik ordinary (the photo demonstrates this) has excellent decorative qualities, which made it very popular among gardeners and designers of park complexes. It looks great when decorating coastlines of ponds and ornamental water bodies. But when compiling the appropriate compositions, it is necessary to take into account the aggressive character of the ostrich, which, creeping and conquering the territory, suppresses other plant species.

Also, this fern is often used as animal feed. The people of Siberia in ancient times used it for food and brewed beer from the ostrich. In addition, it has a medicinal value. Previously, it was used as a wound-healing agent. It helps with burns, frostbite and various skin lesions. Rhizome rhizomes were used in folk medicine in Siberia to normalize the functioning of the digestive tract, as an antipyretic, soothing and antitussive.